Information on the surroundings of the domestic appliance is taken into account in a plurality of domestic appliance functions. Domestic appliances that detect movements in their own surroundings and take said movements into account in order to increase operating comfort or operational safety are known, for example. In order to increase the operating comfort, display illumination can for example be activated when a movement is detected in the vicinity of a domestic appliance. In order to increase the operational safety, domestic appliances can for example be switched off if no movement has been detected in the surroundings of the domestic appliance for a long period of time.
In known domestic appliances, various sensors, such as proximity sensors, are used to acquire information on the surroundings. Furthermore, solutions are known in which information on the surroundings can be acquired by means of one or more cameras.
However, the use of additional sensors results in increased hardware costs for the domestic appliance. Moreover, the installation and calibration of the sensors used is often complex, and thus entails an additional cost increase.